170 Jesus, Prophet ofIslam
if 1 had fled for any crime. Besides nothing constrains
me to embraceyour Religion, for who could force me to
it being unknown to our people, and at so great a dis
tance from them?
So your Majesty ought not to place me in the number
of those Christians who being conquered and made pris
oners by your subjects embrace your Religion but not
with good will and who so soon as they find occasion
run away and renounce the true faith. Wherefore 1again
supplicate your Majesty to lend attention to what 1 am
going to say and to be informed of the true course of
my retreat to your Dominion.
Being promoted to the dignity of Preacher in the fa
mous University of Heidelberg by the Elector Palatine
who next to the Emperor is the most powerful prince in
Germany, 1began to weigh maturely within myself the
divers dissensions and divisions of our Christian reli
gion: for so many persons as there are amongst us there
are so many opinions and sentiments. 1began with ab
stracting from all the Doctors and Interpreters of the
Scriptures who have wrote and taught since the days of
the Prophet Jesus Christ. 1 tied myself only to the com
mandments of Moses and to the Gospel. Then 1 called
upon God inwardly with a most religious application
and prayed Him to show me the right way that 1 may
not be in the danger to mislead myself and my hearers.
Then it pleased God to reveal to me the'Articles of the
Invocation of the One Only God', upon which Article 1
composed a book in which 1 prove that the Doctrine of
Jesus Christ did not consist in asserting that he was him
self a God as the Christians falsely allege: but that there
is only One God who has no son consubstantial with
Hirn, 1 dedicated this book to your Majesty and 1 am
very sure that the most able men amongst the Chris
tians are not capable of refuting it. And wherefore in
deed should 1 associate to God another god like unto
Him? Moses had forbid it and Jesus Christ never taught
it. Afterwards fortifying myself from day to day by the
grace of God, and understanding that the Christians
abuse all the benefits ofJesus Christ as formerly the Jews
abused the brazen serpent ... 1 conc1uded that nothinghttp://www.islamicbulletin.com